*disclaimer* I am not speaking negatively of SOG in any way shape or form, everyone there is always very nice and professional*/end disclaimer* I took my 03 to subaru to pick up a key fob. they hooked me up with a discount from my company to theirs which was cool, and the parts department was very helpful. i couldnt remember the procedure on here to program the key fob, and asked the lady at parts how to do it. she said it was in the owners manual, and offered to order me one for 17 bucks. It would take a week or so to get one in, and the lady in parts suggested that i get one of the tech's to do it. Well after he does the 30 second service, she writes me a bill for 30 bucks. I would definitely not have paid if i knew how much it was, i would have just looked it up on here. I mean technically it is my fault for not asking what the cost was ahead of time, but 29.95 for literally 30 seconds worth of work is ridiculous. I would have assumed that they would do something like this for free or for 5 bucks. now i know if i had asked neal or any of the techs they would have just told me how to do it, but whatever. thoughts, mark
yeah thats a bit steep. they are nice people but you need to remember its still a business. i could see 10$ but eek.
why are you watching this thread...its not going anywhere because there is nothing wrong with it. It is simply one person's experience on how they were treated. EDIT: Actually, I moved this thread to the dealership reviews forum. Thanks for your input import
hey will, would i be incorrect in assuming that you or neal would have more than likely just told me how to program it or done it for me? I don't mind paying for real labor at all (well, i do, because i try to do 100% myself) but 30 bucks for 1.5 minutes is crazy. by the way, what is the guys name with long hair who rides a motorcycle? i can't ever remember his name. thanks, mark
Jonathan is the long hair'd guy. Typically at SOG they charge 0.5 to program a remote. The sales dept and 99% of normal customers never have any second thoughts over it. However, if you catch Neil he'd do it for free most of the time.
i guess what i dont understand is why exactly i go to work every day and get paid for x number of hours i work, yet a dealership gets to charge 30 minutes labor on a 1 minute job. I do understand that some jobs pay like 2 hours and take 5, but for me, i believe that is ridiculous.
Read this, it might make you understand better. http://www.wrxatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15432 Like today, I did a timing belt job w/waterpump and all the front cam/crank seals on a WRX. It pays 4hrs. I did it in 2 with just hand tools, no air. With air I can get it done in 45 mins.
something like that I would say should be something that comes with the purchase of the key fob..... it's like me telling someone they have to pay me $30 to pair their bluetooth headset that they just bought from me.....it takes all of 30 seconds to a minute to do.....sometimes longer!
I'm sure your stuff is all tied together better than a dealership. At every single dealer I've worked at if someone got a fob and they wanted it programed, we HAD to send them to service. Either the advisor would program it for free, or they'd make an RO and have a tech do it for a fee. A few times I did it (when I worked parts) and got yelled at. But at a dealer each department is basically a business of its own. Each one needs to make money. Suppose a department makes no money for a year. That department would face changes forced upon it by the parent company in order to improve profits. The only two things that ties them together is the 'parent company' and the fact that they are in the same building. The other screwy thing is that when service has to buy a part...they dont get it at cost or even employee pricing. Its at wholesale pricing. Parts dept at most dealers rip the sales dept a new one on parts and sell them at list or at Matrix. Same with service when parts or sales come back there for accessory installs or service on the parts delivery vehicles. Its all retarded and I dont agree with most of it. But thats how it works.
I know the dept having to make a profit thing.... Where I work( for 4 more days!), since the tech dept is a seperate company, we have to make $4500 per tech per month....it's damn near impossible to make that money every month and as such, we haven't done it in my store in almost a year. There are some instances where you just have to take a loss..... then there are the other places that charge 'hidden fees'.. Story: I went to Hi-Fi Buys to get a head unit installed...they didnt sell me the unit, but they do quality work and I've had friends work there in the past.....they call AFTER the install and tell me the total for the install was 89.99. BEFORE I scheduled the appointment, they told me the install would be 45.99. Needless to say, I inquired with the install tech who called me why it was twice what I was quoted and he said he went ahead and pulled the speakers to test them and that's what cost that much extra...I told him there was no way in hell I was paying that b/c I never authorized that NOR was I told. He put me on hold and talked to the manager and they ended up taking that charge off....that's where 'profit' comes in. it took him 15 minutes to check my speakers, one of which I knew was bad....he also stated he wasn't going to install the HU b/c of this issue. I told him he better install it and I don't care about the speaker cuz I know it doesn't work.....long story short, they took that charge off.....had I REALLY been an asshole, I would have demanded the install for free, but I know that wouldn't happen, so I didn't push it.
Fuck them....they never told me about the extra charge...and I signed paperwork stating all that was going to be done!
lol will i guess i somehow deleted the rest of my post. i was going to say i agree with 2pt5rs in that if something us going to be done it should be clearly outlined before it us done. if sog pulls a clutch, inspects it for warranty then calls to see if they should proceed before charging the customer i feel like prices should be outlined before service us performed